With April rapidly reaching its half way point, the boundary country weather has leveled off into being more typical. Following that record breaking March, we have experienced some stunning spring days with warm sun, and nighttimes where some good hard frost sparkled from morning roof tops. The Smith’s even awoke to another white landscape this past Monday morning, snow is still stunning!

Moreover, a few days saw a skim of ice on shallow ponds and Mile O Pine road side puddles froze solid. It is sad that conditions now are right, but too little, too late for the maple sweetness producers. This should have happened about a month or so ago.

After a week of wetness there were glowing hopes for drought improvements. At the upper end of Gunflint paradise however, the past week has reverted back to dry times with little moisture to which we can get excited. Wildersmith counted only sparse amounts in a couple shower attempts since our last radio/website visit.

County-wide burning restrictions now in place, has not calmed the nerves for yours truly. With the ability to still have camp fires out in the woods, the area remains as an accident waiting to happen. Folks out this way will never forget how that Ham Lake tragedy might have been averted if camp fires had been nixed during arid times like now.

I have proceeded to get into the lake and set neighborhood wildfire sprinkler system lines for which I’ve assumed responsibility. As soon as comfort is reached that we will not have another bitter cold snap, systems will be primed and fired up in readiness with hope that they are never summoned into an emergency mode

By the way, getting into the lake for that job was no real treat. Donning my wet suit and scuba boots made it tolerable. However, bare hands found the liquid numbing cold in a matter of seconds. The Gunflint water at that time was a cool 39 degrees.

I would caution water craft enthusiasts to play it safe during these early open water conditions. An accidental dip in the lake at this time of year can be catastrophic!

Organizers are gearing up for the annual Ham Run Half Marathon. The event which also features a 5K and little runts run will happen Sunday, May 6th @ 9:30 am. For entering and more details, check out the website www.hamrunhalfmarathon.com or www.VisitCookCounty.com it’s the “Race without a Trace,” greenest in Minnesota.

In the ever evolving warming of our north land, critters that don’t usually habituate these parts continue to move in and make themselves at home. One species that’s becoming more and more prominent are those masked bandit raccoons.

We had one visit the Wildersmith deck last fall then didn’t see it again all winter. Thinking I had a bear checking things out on our deck over the past weekend, it turned out that this ring-tailed bandit has found his way back.

I would have thought that it might be a cold season wolf snack, but guess not. It some how survived and is in fact, quite pig like in size. These animals are about as welcome as those annoying, but more common, woodchucks and skunks of the northern forest.

The chore at hand is how to humanely rid the neighborhood of this menacing pest. If anyone has a recipe for raccoon stew, let me know and I’ll deliver, if and when.